How to make lube

I wanted to make some thin yoyo lube
Please suggest me how to make it without mineral spirits as I have seen it is used to make thin yoyo lube
And can I use lighter fluid or acetone to make lube?

I believe you are messing the compounds. Mineral spirits are solvents used for cleaning the bearings. Lube is a mixture of oils and aditives, mainly petroleum hydrocarbons… Nowadays it’s easy if you just buy lubes from YYE site, they have for responsive and unresponsive yoyos.

Edit: you could check this for reference:
Lubricating Oil - an overview | ScienceDirect Topics.

You can mix mineral spirits with a little bit of 3-in-one oil to make a thin lube. I’ve made some myself and it works well!

3 Likes

Hmmmmmm. I got the idea, dilute an oil to make it less viscous, but that is not making oil… But okay, probably Omkar meant this. So that’s it. :smiley:

1 Like

So is there any substitute to thin lube because I don’t have access to any yoyo store and seller in here.

Any substitute to thin lube cause you look like a yoyo pro

No, I’m definitely not a pro. Twich77 is. :slight_smile:

Okay, so what I would say: purchase at YYE store, if international purchase is difficult for you, try a less viscous lubricant you can find for metal application.
(I tried Dynabrade pneumatic “thin” oil and that was okay) After that you can dilute with mineral spirits as told above. Since you probably dont have “3-in-one” you must experiment.
I would say, go for mineral spirits, cheaper than lighter fluid (and less agressive), acetone is good but hard to find at 99,9% purity, only if you work as a Chemist, if that’s the case, you know how to handle HPLC grade Acetone, and that’s okay.

Also, there are people that dont lube the bearing, just use until it cracks and replace with a new one (example, bulk Chinese bearings).

1 Like

What about sewing machine oil
Can that be used for the same
And yeah thanks for your help

2 Likes

Yep, you can use sewing machine oil to lube your bearings, no dilution necessary! It’s actually specifically mentioned as a thin lube on the yoyo wiki :slight_smile:

1 Like

I dont know. You could try, but probably diluting.

Sewing machine oil usually have low viscosity (the Singer oil I have at 40 degrees Celcius has 10 centistokes) that will make the bearing instantly responsive with less than one drop. But I did not make the test with mineral spirits.

Thank you very much for this

Thanks to everyone who helped me
Never thought I will get my key in just 6 hours

As noted you can dilute something like 3-in-1 oil with mineral spirits. I would avoid lighter fluid or acetone. They are stronger solvents.

1 Like

You can also make your own Dark Matter with a high % Isopropyl Alcohol and Graphite Powdered Lubricant. Just always remember; a little goes a long way. Apply with a needle tip to get small drops.

image

I’ve always found graphite based lubes to be extremely messy and not worth the effort to use them and not get any on ya…

1 Like

I have heard of some players using trumpet valve oil.

1 Like